Bid now! Bid high! The Rutz “Clovis” point is up for auction tomorrow! Starting bid is $50,000 for an enormous surface-collected Clovis arrowhead.

We are assured this is “genuine” and it has been confirmed by John Mark Clark, a renowned arrowhead collector and former furniture salesman, now an authenticator of prehistoric goods. Here’s a statement from Mr. Clark:

“The market has been flooded with repros and fraudulent material. It’s something I’ve had to deal with on a daily basis, so I know other collectors are having to deal with it, too,” Clark said. “Only a few auction houses guarantee the authenticity of what they sell, and Morphy’s is one of them. The prehistoric market has been begging for a reputable auction house to step in and warranty what they’re selling, and now that’s going to happen.”

Morphy’s assures us that this point has “been vetted by the most knowledgeable and experienced minds in the field“. The auction field? The archaeology field? The wheat field where it was collected? Um, did we inadvertently “vet” it by having it at the Paleoamerican Odyssey?

And finally, anyone want to bet on who will buy it? There are some shrewd guesses flying around the collector communities. I suspect it will be a familiar name to most of us. I personally can’t imagine coveting any “collectible” that badly. Maybe it’s just a control thing.

In the mean time, I’ll continue to whack out “clovis” points and scatter them to the four winds. Maybe somebody will pay $400,000 for one someday.